Retreat Wings Finished

I didn't make as much progress on my Retreat doll as I had hoped this week, due to dealing with the symptoms of a sinus infection. (Finding and redrilling the support hole for the right upper wing was an adventure let me tell you, LOL. Ugh.) Anyway, I managed to finish her wings/stand this morning and snapped a few quick pics this afternoon.


Layers and yet more layers of cheesecloth, art tissue, and paint were slathered on, and then the whole mess was frosted with some "Bernardization", a process which consists of a mixing up soup of Grrrip glue, micromarbles, glitter, and whatever else I feel like throwing in, which is then scooped up and applied with a craft stick and allowed to dry. The very cool frosted effect that this produces looks like meticulous work, but is actually delightfully messy and quick. Sweet, huh? (Thanks Jean B!)


The textures and embellishments on the upper and lower wings are a little different - lots more cheesecloth on top...


... and more tissue and glitter on the bottom. This is quite a large piece and I felt there needed to be some differences in order to keep it from being one overwhelming mass of yellow and gold.

By the way, I now realize why I don't work much with yellow. A little goes a *very* long way, LOL!

I gave the doll herself some little breasts just to even out her shape a bit, and I am still pondering what I want to do to finish off her head. I should take more in-progress pics as I go so you could see better how they develop, but I never remember to do it until I pause to think "what's next". Oh well... if you want to know where I am going with all of this you can see the original of this doll at Sherry Goshon's blog.

Sherry and Jean's Retreat doll

Just one more...

And yet another UFO becomes a Finished Project, thanks to these fun fun FUN wings! This fantasy horse began its life as a little Breyer model unicorn. Lydia collects Breyer figures - she has several of this kind, so she gave me one to play with. He's been sitting on my work table covered with gesso and ready to go for months, but I was never inspired to get going on him until I thought of giving him wings.


I wanted him to be more purple, but I stopped here because I had achieved a subtle shading from pearl white to blue to purple to gold that really pleased me. If you click on the photo to bring it up to full size you can see the color shifts better - he really does look magical.

Hmmmm... now that I get a good look at his portrait, I think next time I work with film that pale for wings I will use lighter color wire. The purple wire I used for these is kind of overpowering.


The horse on the left in this photo is exactly the same as how the repainted one started out. Quite the change, eh?

OK, now that I've had some good fun with these wings I really need to get back to work on my dragon eggs. The month is wearing on.